The present invention is directed to battery connectors for attaching electrical cable to battery terminal posts, e.g. car batteries, and more particularly to an easy-to-use, quick-connect, reusable battery connector.
Typical storage batteries utilize tapered lead rods for the terminals. This is especially true of automobile batteries. Heretofore, battery connectors were provided with similarly-tapered holes which fit over the terminals and which relied on large bolts to externally clamp the connector about the terminal. Despite conforming to the tapered terminal, effective contact between the terminal and the connector was not guaranteed due to manufacturing tolerances of both devices, surface irregularities, and like causes. Because the battery connectors also usually consist of soft lead, the external clamping bolts also tended to deform the connector at its clamping site in addition to clamping the matching tapered surfaces of the connector and battery terminal. These soft materials of construction also made it inadvisable to torque down the clamping bolt to fully seat the two surfaces since the extra force needed for such proper seating usually resulted in distorting the connector at its clamping site. While this could be done once, if the connector were removed from the battery terminal for reuse, the resulting distortion became a significant impediment to such reuse or further tightening of the connector.
Contact surfaces not fully seated are subject to oxidation resulting in surface corrosion which inhibits a good electrical connection. Additionally, vibration often contributes to a loosening of the connector or the lead connector may relieve itself of the stress imposed on it by the external clamping force, both actions resulting in incomplete seating or contact resulting in poor electrical conduction and/or further exposed surfaces for surface oxidation. Once the connector or terminal has oxidized, further tightening of the connector is of little value absent removal of the connector for removal of the surface oxidation from the connector and the battery terminal.
Finally, it will be realized that the soft materials of construction result in distortion of the battery terminal, thus making further tightening of an existing connector, or the installation of a new connector difficult. As a practical matter, once a battery connector has been removed from a battery, it typically cannot be reused, thus necessitating the purchase of a new connector.